There is a saying that there are only two degrees of separation between anyone in New Zealand. Using only publicly available records, a diligent researcher has uncovered an explosive network of powerful connections with Nanaia Mahuta at its nexus. In most other “western” nations including NZ’s closest trading partners, such connections would never have been allowed to happen.

Nanaia Mahuta holds many important ministerial portfolios in the NZ Government, including the prestigious Minister of Foreign Affairs. She is the Minister of Local Government and is responsible two of the most significant changes in NZ’s governance since the Treaty of Waitangi, He Puapua and the consequent Three Waters reforms. Internationally, it is highly unusual for both domestic and international portfolios to be held by the same person. Such a confluence is avoided for the obvious conflicts that inevitably arise.

Mahuta’s current and former roles can be found here on the NZ Parliament website.

Conflicts of interest will arise in a small nation. However those can be handled appropriately, such as by the handing off of appointment authority to a completely disinterested 3rd party. NZ has seen the appropriate handling of such conflicts such as in the appointment of an overseas judge to review Crown compensation for judicial decisions. The Cabinet Manual provides for this with very clear rules for Ministers.

Conflicts of interest have been taken very seriously in the past. A well-known instance of this involved Judith Collins, her husband and Oravida, a Chinese company established in 2011 to export NZ produce to China. Collins’s husband was a director of Oravida. In 2014, Collins was accused of a conflict of interest. During a taxpayer-funded visit to China in her role as Justice Minister in 2013, she dined with a Chinese border official and Oravida bosses, and endorsed the milk the company produced.

Then-Prime Minister John Key publicly criticised the visit, causing Collins to apologise and deny a conflict. Collins also denied that her husband would necessarily benefit from Oravida’s success as he was not a shareholder. However, Collins later resigned from her Cabinet roles and was subject to a formal investigation by a High Court judge. She was cleared and subsequently reinstated.

The following is a timeline illustrating the ministerial roles held by Nanaia Mahuta and when the appointments were made of either Tipa Mahuta or William Gannin Ormsby (or his consultancy firm Ka Awatea, or its other Directors) to various roles. The overlap of the colours is used to show where those appointments fall within the area of responsibility of a particular ministerial role held by Nanaia Mahuta at the same time.

Tipa Mahuta

Tipa Mahuta (Tipa) is the sister of Nanaia Mahuta and a powerful political figure especially in local government in the Waikato region. She has been a Waikato Regional Council member since 2014. Her most recent appointment was to the Co-chair position at the Maori Health Authority in November 2021.

She is also on a member of Te Maruata, a subcommittee of Local Government NZ (LGNZ), which advises the NZ Government on local government policies and legislation. She is in effect, advising her own sister as the Minister.

Co-Chair of 3 Waters

It is Tipa’s appointment to the Co-chair position of the Maori Advisory Group to 3 Waters (Taumata Arowai) in May 2021 that showed up in the conflicts of interest declaration at that time.

Tipa was appointed under s15 of the new Taumata Arowai – the Water Services Regulator Act 2020, to a statutory position which is key in the 3 Waters structure and governance. Her appointment took place on 20 May 2021.

It is notable that the transfer of the authority to make the appointment took place on 24 February 2021, according to the conflicts table. If it had not already been known at that time that Tipa was likely to be appointed, there would have had to be no need for such a transfer of authority to occur.

The decision to appoint Tipa had clearly been made by Nanaia Mahuta in her role as Minister of Local Development, prior to 24 February 2021 in consultation with the Minister of Maori Crown Relations, as required by the legislation. The Minister of Maori Crown Relations is and was at the time, Kelvin Davis. This is significant because in handing off the responsibility for the appointment of Tipa, Nanaia Mahuta was in fact handing it off not to someone impartial & uninvolved in the original decision, but in fact to someone who had been fully involved. The transfer of authority was then reversed a month after Tipa’s appointment.

Such a transfer of authority for the avoidance of a conflict of interest would typically happened with a completely separate Minister, such as Chris Hipkins. That clearly did not occur.

William Gannin-Ormsby (Gannin Ormsby / William Ormsby)

William Ormsby first came to the public’s attention in 2003 when he was convicted of assault on a female. This is significant for the following reasons:

• other, more serious, charges were dropped. It is likely that the Crown would have dropped those charges due to the connection with Mahuta and in exchange for pleading guilty to the single charge of assault on a female.
• with such a serious conviction, it would have been highly unlikely for him to have ever been appointed to senior advisory roles for the Government.
• the judge was clearly swayed by Mahuta’s connection, with both the name suppression and the sentence. A conviction for assault on a female may result in a prison sentence of up to 2 years. Ormsby received 240 hours of community service.
• the Waikato Times had applied for a judicial review of the name suppression orders for them to be lifted. The reviewing judge voiced concern about the lack of reasons given by the original judge for granting final name suppression.

Ka Awatea Services Limited (KASL)

This is a consulting firm “to facilitate business opportunities to advance whānau, hapū and iwi aspiration.” It is fully owned by Ormsby, he is the sole shareholder.

KASL was formed in June 2019 and Ormsby became a shareholder in July 2020.

The NZ Government, through Nanaia Mahuta as the Minister responsible, commissioned He Puapua in August 2019. One of the authors of the report is named on its front page as Waimirirangi Ormsby. Another contributor is named as Tamoko-o-te-Rangi Ormsby.

Both these latter Ormsbys are relations of Gannin Ormsby. Waimirirangi Ormsby has a BSc/BA in Sports Science and Maori Studies. Tamoko Ormsby has a Bachelor of Engineering. They both appear to be below 30 years old, with Waimirirangi Ormsby having finished high school in 2012 and Tamoko Ormsby in 2010.

All three Ormsbys were Directors of KASL by December 2020 but Gannin Ormsby remains the sole shareholder.

KASL obtained a significant contract in February 2021 with the Ministry for the Environment, as part of a panel of 5 experts to advise on the new Waste Strategy for NZ. As far as the researcher has been able to discover, none of the 3 Ormsbys have any relevant experience. Gannin Ormsby lists 13 years in the British Army on his LinkedIn profile. As previously shown, Gannin Ormsby also has a significant conviction.

Since the Ministry for the Environment Waste Strategy contract in 2021, the younger Ormsbys have both been engaged in consulting project work under the KASL banner.

Where To From Here?

There are many questions that arise from this information, all of which has been verified and demonstrated to be publicly available. At the very least, it would appear that a thorough investigation is warranted, using the precedent set by the Oravida-Collins situation.